> > I don't understand that. Your encoding uses -180 ... + 180 
> for the full
> > circle, so 170 and -170 are pretty close, just 20 degrees apart, so
> > there is only one average (south, if 0 is north).
> 
> 'apart' is the key. Average and 'apart' are two different things.

Two different words indeed.

Feel free to disagree, but for me averaging is a way to combine a number
of data points in such a way that (among other things) small variations
are removed. So it makes (much) more sense to average NW and NE together
to N than to S. Or think about a boat that is drifting in the wind.
After an hour of NW wind and an hour of NE wind the total effect is more
likely to resemble that of two hours N wind than of two hours S wind.

Wouter van Ooijen

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Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products
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